UConn professor records song about Ukraine tragedy

Recording aims to keep attention on ongoing crisis

It’s been two years since Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, and a UConn professor has made it his mission to ensure Americans don’t forget about the ongoing humanitarian crisis there.

UConn Health’s Dr. Leo Wolansky, professor and chair of Diagnostic Imaging and Therapeutics at the UConn School of Medicine, and first past-president of the Ukrainian Medical Association of North America, wants to keep attention on the critical humanitarian needs of the people of Ukraine.

Wolansky said he wrote and recorded a song about a tragedy where hundreds of Ukrainian children were killed by Russian bombers. The AP estimates more than 20,000 Ukrainian civilians have been killed or are missing.

A semi-professional musician, he performed his song called “Where are you?” for the first time at a Ukrainian arts festival. The recording also features the voices of his two sons, Leo and Ivan, as well as a friend, Olya Fryz.

“In March 2022 the city of Mariupol in Ukraine was under siege,” Wolansky said in UConn Today. “In Mariupol there was a large theater, which was being used as a shelter. The stage crew of the theater had painted the Russian word “ДЕТИ” meaning “Children” in giant letters on the pavement of the parking lot as a warning to Russian pilots, not to bomb the building. Despite this, on March 16, Russian pilots dropped two large bombs on theater. The AP estimates that up to 600 people, many of them mothers and children died.”

Wolansky said he got the idea for the title of the song from the four-letter Russian word for “children” that when divided into two words, each two letters in length, “ДЕ” and “ТИ,” means “Where are you?” in Ukrainian.

“Imagine that. Where are you … children? Where are you?” Wolansky said in UConn Today.

“As we commemorate the second anniversary of Ukraine’s heroic battle, please take a few minutes to remember the missing children of Ukraine. Although it is too late for the 600 who died in the Mariupol theater, we need to help the 6,000,000 children still living within Ukraine,” Wolansky said.

On March 16, 2024, in honor of the children who died in the Mariupol theater, Wolansky is urging people around the world to widely share the words of that tragic day ,ДЕ and ТИ, or “where are you?” in any way possible. Wolansky hopes the song will keep their memory alive for many years to come.

UMANA is a nonpartisan professional organization whose mission is to ensure health care access to Ukrainians throughout the world. During Wolansky’s presidency, UMANA collected over $2 million in donations and sent approximately $20 million worth of supplies to Ukraine, according to UConn Today.